 Class of '53
Thwarting democracy in Iran and Guatemala: What lessons?
August 12, 2003
The Iranian
Please Announce
Thwarting Democracy in Iran and Guatemala: What Lessons
Have We Learned Fifty
Years After the U.S. Sponsored Coups. November 13-15, 2003, Northeastern
Illinois University in Chicago
A major international conference on the U.S. Sponsored Coups in
Iran (1953) and
Guatemala (1954) will be held by Northeastern Illinois University
on November
13-15 on
its main campus in Chicago (Bryn Mawr and Central Park). This historic
conference, first of its kind, will host a number of well known
scholars,
journalists and experts,
who will present their views and experiences on the historical
and future
relevance and significance of these coups with regard to U.S. policy
of
intervention in other
countries.
Some of the presenters include: Stephen Kinzer, Senior
New York
Times Correspondent and the co-author of Bitter Fruit: The Story
of the American
Coup in
Guatemala and the author of All the Shah‚s Men: An American
Coup and the Roots
of Middle East Terror (the story of coup in Iran), Raul Molina-Mejia
(Rigoberta
Menchu
Tum Foundation and New York University), Mark Gasiorowski (Louisiana
State
University), Mansur Farhang (Bennington College and Iran‚s
former Ambassador to
the
U.N.), Janet Afary (Historian, Purdue University), Mahmoud Goudarzi
(Washington
D.C. based Iran expert Journalist), Douglas Cassell (Northwestern
University
Center for
International Human Rights), Michael Fischer (Rice University),
and Malcolm
Byrne (George Washington University), Houshang Keshavarz Sadr (Paris,
France),
Cyrus Bina (University of Minnesota at Morris), The conference
will also feature
Dr. Saied Fatemi,
nephew of the late Dr. Hossein Fatemi. Dr. Saied Fatemi was Dr.
Mossadegh's
translator in the Hague court and is the last living person who
was in Dr.
Mossadegh's
house on the fateful day on August 19, 1953. Many more speaker
are being added
to the list. Some of the topics that will be covered in various panels are:
The Historical
Contexts of the 1953 Iranian Coup and the 1954 Guatemalan Coup,
United States
Foreign
Policy Motives and Interests in the 1953/1954 Coups, The Effects
on the
1953/1954 Coups on the Politics, Economy and Human Rights in Iran
and Guatemala,
Personal
Reflections of People Who Were There During the Iranian and Guatemalan
Coups,
Regional Impacts of the Coups on Political Development and Human
Rights in the
Middle East and Central America, The Lessons of 1953/1954 Coups
for Current and
the Future United States Foreign Policy and The Literatures of
Iran and
Guatemala
Reflecting These Two Coups.
This conference is significant as it provides for an in-depth
review of U.S.
foreign policy of covert intervention in removing two democratic
regimes in two
different parts of the
world, discusses its consequences and presents some lessons for
the future
policies. The conference also provides an arena for the Iranian
and Guatemalan
communities
to share their common experiences of these two devastating coups.
To facilitate
this important sharing, there will be a number of cultural ceremonies
during the
conference. The first two days of the conference are in English
and the
Saturday sessions are in Persian.
Supported by the College of Academic Development and other colleges
and
divisions in the University, a large number of faculty and staff
at Northeastern
Illinois University
have joined their minds and hands together to plan and implement
this conference
successfully. Besides Northeastern Illinois University, many other
outside
groups and
institutions support this conference. Some of the co-sponsors of
the Conference
are: In These Times, Amnesty International, American Friends Service
Committee,
Sharhvand Persian Newspaper, and Heartland Cafe and Journal. More
co-sponsors
are being added to the list. A number of fund raising events are
planned for
this
conference, including one at Heartland Cafe (in Chicago) on Saturday,
October
25, at 9:00 p.m.
More information, including hotel arrangements, are forthcoming
in the next two
weeks.
For more information, please visit the conference Web site at
WWW.NEIU.EDU/~IranGuat (under
construction, will be set up by mid
August)
or call James Moody at (773) 442-5443. To join the
Conference LISTSERV,
please send a subscription request to Iran_Guatemala_Conf_L@NEIU.EDU
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